First look at Loca Niru, the restaurant in the 140-year-old Teochew mansion in Orchard opening to public for the first time

After a restoration, the House of Tan Yeok Nee, Singapore’s oldest surviving Chinese mansion, has been transformed into a lifestyle and events space, with a fine dining restaurant on the second floor.

The conserved building on Penang Road opposite the Istana Park, completed around the year 1885 by businessman Tan Yeok Nee as a family home, is known as the last of the ‘Four Grand Mansions’ of Teochew architecture built in Singapore in the 19th century.

Over the years, it has housed the Salvation Army, an orphanage for girls, a university campus and a traditional Chinese medicine hall.